I agree with Ernie on the merits of both the boilerplate issue and Deflategate, but even though both may be meh moments as to substance, they are also extremely powerful political symbols.
A line on the Olympics is that the events have become a giant international corporate Borg that suck a fortune from host cities, slam them into Panem-style dystopias during the events, and leave them littered with hastily built architectural turds that deface the landscape for decades. A line on the Patriots is that they are cheaters who will do anything to win, from taping their opponents to deflating footballs to get a better grip, and that explains their exceptional performance since 2001.
I think both of these interpretations are misguided: the Olympics might be great for Boston, and according to the NFL the Patriots have won their titles fair and square. But politically, both issues play directly into the hands of naysayers. That’s why Walsh should never have approved that clause and, if it’s true that it is no big deal he should follow David’s advice and get an amended contract if he wants to maximize public support. As for the Patriots, the map below from ESPN illustrates my point.
On to the Super Bowl. Hurray for sports in Boston and New England. Go Patriots!
Christopher says
…is if there is some advantage to slightly deflated balls wouldn’t it benefit both teams and thus still be a fair game? It’s not like one team uses one ball and the other team another ball.
BTW, this is hardly a scandal worthy of a -gate designation!
Jasiu says
Please actually read some of the (vast) coverage on this before commenting further.
Bob Neer says
Now I understand why that little golden circle looks like a halo.
Bob Neer says
Wikipedia and ABC News
Christopher says
I get that I don’t understand much about football, but I have watched enough to know that the ball gets passed back and forth. What I think you are saying has not come up in any coverage I’ve heard or read.
fenway49 says
When that team is on offense, they use their own balls. This has definitely come up in the coverage.
petr says
… I didn’t know that.
Nonetheless, for about a week every time I went to the Google my search results, if they were sufficiently vague, returned links to news headlines about how ‘such and such team used waxed balls in super bowl elebenty X” or “So and so quarterback used a nail file on the balls” (I can’t even believe I’m typing these phrases as I’m typing them… ) or something like that (wasn’t paying that much attention so the exact details might differ). The point is, after the allegations arose about the Pats you couldn’t deflate expectations about it without it chilling a bowl of allegation soup.
So I wonder if this is, more or less, an open secret that the NFL keeps in it’s back pocket to spank a team with… Maybe the other team just wanted to do the spanking? Maybe they’re concussing themselves and saying “why didn’t we think of that?!?!?” I dunno.
Jasiu says
The Pats themselves have made at least two image goofs that have led to Twitter fests. First was Edelman being interviewed in a t-shirt that said “Trust Nobody” and features Tupac giving double-birds. Then today’s press conferences with both Belichick and Brady had a backdrop advertising Gillette’s “Flexball” razor.
But my favorite is a press release by the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a farm team for the Chicago Cubs, advertising an event for their upcoming season which also doubles as a serious fundraiser:
Of course, the more you know about the details of the controversy, the more jokes you get.
Charley on the MTA says
I’m kind of amazed by the rush to judgment — amazed, though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. No one knows anything about how the balls got deflated. No equipment manager has signed a deposition (for crying out loud). No one knows jack, except that 7 years ago the Pats actually did cheat in a substantive way.
But now Brady and Belichick should miss the Super Bowl.
Well done, everyone.
fenway49 says
I don’t even know that. This was common practice in the league, whether with cameras or a guy in the stands with binoculars and a walkie-talkie. Countless NFL coaches have said that they did the same thing and that any advantage gained thereby was negligible. The Jets had a guy on the field in Foxboro at the end of the prior season. He was shown out, with no league investigation or ridiculously overblown punishment.
The big “crime” of the Patriots in 2007 was that the league changed the rules on where in the stadium people could be when peeking at the other sidelines. They sent a memo about the new rules and the Patriots didn’t follow it. The sanction was far more than it would have been if Goodell, a rookie then, didn’t feel the need to assert himself.
This one’s even stupider. No evidence has come out yet, just one unconfirmed report that “11 of 12” balls were underinflated. No evidence of anyone deflating them after the officials are alleged to have checked them
2 hours before game time. No evidence that said check, as concerns actually measuring the PSI, ever took place. No mention that, due to inclement weather, the Patriots actually prepared 24 footballs and not 12.
Plenty of QB’s and coaches coming forward and saying these rules are not particularly enforced, that each QB does what he wants, that nobody says anything much about it, that it’s really not a big deal. Along the lines of a hockey player with a stick that curves too much or a football player with cleats 3 mm past regulation.
None of this will stop the yahoos who hate the Patriots. It is a good map linked. It looks just like my map of “states I’d actually live in” and “states inhabited by various idiots and rubes.”
jconway says
Brady astutely said ‘this isn’t ISIS, nobody is dying’, and Mike Florio responded ‘well, maybe it’s Brady’s head the NFL might be beheading next, so it is serious’. Tony K was always a blowhard, but comparing Belichick to Whitey Bulger is beyond the pale. And I used to respect Wilbon, but banning them from the SB is a ridiculous punishment, one that would never ever happen for a bigger violation. Troy Aikman saying this was worse than what the Saints did, which was an illegal bounty system that seriously injured people.
Basically it comes down to that map, we are still effete Dukakis lovin moonbaby country to most of middle America and we aren’t ‘a real team with a football legacy’ which I always get from Bears fans, in spite of the fact that most of them weren’t even born the last time Chicago did anything. More reason for me to return to the land of the thinking.
jconway says
Eerily close to the 72′ electoral map when we were the only part of the country to vote for McGovern. Or the marriage equality map circa 2008. Either way, go New England! Ahead of the country and full of ideas instead of hot air.
Christopher says
Forget New England, only MA (and DC) went for McGovern, hence when Watergate blew up the bumper stickers saying, “Don’t blame me – I’m from Massachusetts!” (though from what I’ve read much of the scandal was known before the election so I’m not sure why it didn’t have more impact). Contrast with 1936 when VT and ME were the only states not to go for FDR.
dave-from-hvad says
Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman got it right when he said using deflated footballs is a more serious offense than the BountyGate scandal in which the New Orleans Saints rewarded players for intentionally trying to hurt other teams’ players.
Aikman and others who are calling for the most severe possible punishment for Belichick and Brady have their priorities right. Okay, it’s true that the lying, cheating Patriots never paid anyone to hurt anyone else. But I think we would all agree that under-inflated footballs could seriously hurt people under the right circumstances.
Thank you, Troy, for pointing me in the right direction on this.
dave-from-hvad says
n/t
jconway says
He admits to not even remembering who he was when he won the Super Bowl he got hit so bad, and when you are hit that many times it’s hard to form coherent thoughts. He does great caricatures though.
Christopher says
…on either your part or Aikman’s?
dave-from-hvad says
I don’t think what the Patriots are alleged to have done is at all serious in the annals of cheating, and I think the entire world is coming down on them in a very ugly way. Supposedly reputable media outlets such as USA Today are calling for Belichick’s suspension and other severe sanctions without knowing the facts of the case, much less waiting for the conclusion of the NFL investigation. On top of that, people like Toy Aikman charge that deflating footballs is a more serious offense than paying players to intentionally maim people in football games. I should probably stay away from sarcasm, but I guess its a way of dealing with the ugliness and hypocrisy that I see here, coming from so many sources that I used to view as reputable and unbiased.
scott12mass says
Pats win it’s all forgotten. They don’t ….. (It exposes poor control by the NFL since this can’t happen in the Superbowl, the balls are controlled by the referees not equipment boys, as they should be for all games).
stomv says
It’s a dumb rule. The footballs should be provided, handled, and managed by the refs, not the teams. Yes, the refs could have personnel on the sidelines with towels to keep them as dry as possible. And yes, both teams would then use the same balls. And yes, that means the same balls for the kicking game as for offense.
The current system, both pro and NCAA, is goofy.
HR's Kevin says
Just relax the rules and lower the air pressure limit. Then it won’t be an unfair advantage since either QB could do it. Would it really make any difference to the game?
Jasiu says
I’m not sure how much the condition of the ball matters, but if both teams are allowed to do whatever to the balls, there should be no advantage. Heck, let ’em throw pizzas if they want. If there ARE rules, then the refs have to be in control of the balls.
Either the stomv way or the hrs-kevin way would be fine w/ me.
OTOH, neither deals with the much more serious issue of player concussions…
TheBestDefense says
would be fine with me since each team is already allowed to scuff up and treat the surface any way they wish. It does not seem like much can be gained by deflating as it marginally reduces the distance the ball can be thrown even while it marginally increase handling capacity.